Condiment Care

 t's that time of year when everyone uses ketchup, mustard, mayo and hot sauce almost on a daily basis. Yet do werefrigerate them 9or leave them out on the counter as we do in winter? Summer  - and any hot temperature is really not a friend to all those extras from peanut butter to jam included. How does a home chef take care of these vital side ingredients? LUckily there's a guide for them,

New contributor Kristin Miglore, creative director at  Food52.com gave a comprehensive guide in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. There are guidelines for everything which comes in handy during these warm and soon to be steamy days. The most important condiment in the summer is mayonnaise.It is a vital ingredient in so many summer side salads as well as being what gives sandwiches their flavor and moistness. The big surprise is that it can last outside the fridge for up to three months. However it's wise to  keep it chilled (it is egg based after all)Mayo can get too warm and emulsify.This means it can break down,separate and wind up with an unpleasant taste.Don;t put it in the back of the fridge either. It can freeze and ice crystals can form inside it ruining the texture. All mayo jars should be relegated to the fridge door shelves Homemade mayo, always made with raw eggs should be refrigerated promptly after making to reduce salmonella risk. WHat about the second most used summer condiment - mustard? it is pantry safe and can be left out thanks to nature of the mustard seed along with the added vinegar and salt. Still it can lose it's bright yellow color and even separate. The taste can go off too. It's best to keep it next to the mayo. The same goes for ketchup thanks to tomatoes' acidity. A bottle can be left out (diners do it) but it's best refrigerated for a better taste.

One of the most important ingredients any time of year is butter. Again like mayo it is surprisingly safe at room temperature. Of course salted will taste fresher longer than unsalted thanks to the salt preserving it. However whipped and plant based butters are more delicate and should be refrigerated at all times. Ghee is another matter.It's been simmered in water until that's evaporated.Ghee can keep up to six months. Honey is another, albeit lesser summer ingredient is honey.It's always perfect over fresh fruit or in mocktails as well as in homemade ice cream.Honey is sugar which means it can last indefinitely. well preserved honey has been found in Egyptian tombs dating back 3,000 years. However do not let moisture in.A wet spoon or a loose lid in ninety percent humidity . This can cause yeast to ferment and leave the syrup with a bad taste and odor. Keep the lid on tight and do not keep in the fridge.Ice crystals can form and cause the syrup to become thick and grainy.Many will bring bringing another sweetener from Vermont or Canada this summer - maple syrup.This most definitely has to be refrigerated. Keeping it out at room temps will cause it to ferment. You could have a bottle of maple wine or vinegar  along with a mold riddled syrup.Toss it if there is mold. Maple syrup can be stored in the freezer. It will not be affected by the extreme cold.

These are just some of the suggestions for the summer's most popular condiments. The guide is more thorough, covering capers, Kim chef and even peanut butter. It is a keeper to follow all year round.

It;s Berry Season

 The one aspect of June is that it's berry season. Strawberries, blueberries and blackberries are in full bloom right now.They can be turned into all sorts of sweet and savory treats.use them in baking. Use them in even barbecuing.Ir's your harvest.

Scones are an easy bake and there;s nothing better than a berry rich scone.Keep in mind that strawberries are water dense fruit and baking with them can lead to a soggy crumb. It's best to slice them and let them drain out  on paper towels for a few hours before using. You'll have a crisper crumb for baked goods and a thicker frosting.Can you make a strawberry croissant? Yes  but it's usually stuffing. Make it with a cream filling. You can have a creme anglaise or a simple whipped cream one put into the croissants right before serving. Another treat is berry butter, made with all three berries or just one or two.It's just taking a half cup of strawberries and a half cup of any other and then mixing them with a half cup of butter. Shape intoa log and chill in wax paper. Add rounds to pancakes and French toast for a fruity and fun bite.Fruit butter is also good on plain or raisin bagels and of course croissants. Another use of the  berries can be boiled down into a syrup. These make for a great natural soda ,especially if you use Soda Stream for the soda.It's just boiling them down with sugar and water into a simple syrup and then straining.

One of the best recipes for fruit is making tasty vinaigrettes. A strawberry vinaigrette is perfect for a grilled chicken salad. Add some creamy feta and almonds to the greens for a very delicious summer salad. Blueberries also make a great vinaigrette.It;s just taking the fruit and mixing it with lemon juice along with olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Again this is a great with a grilled chicken salad or even a julienned  ham salad. Blackberry dressing is another tasty berry perfect for a dressing. Use good olive oil along with apple cider vinegar. It''s even more delicious with chunks of blackberry in it. Use it for a steak salad with a mix of different greens. Berries are a mouth watering addition to any barbecue marinade One of the best is a blackberry one thickened with ketchup and zinged up with vinegar.You can add Dijon mustard and sriracha for heat if you want.everything is cooked up and then the berry mash is strained out. It can be brushed on the meat before grilling. Strawberry glaze is perfect for chicken.Combine fresh , pureed strawberries with honey sugar and balsamic vinegar in a saucepan.Add some garlic and rosemary and cook until thick. You can brush it on before grilling or save it as a dipping sauce for legs and wings.

It's berry season! Take advantage of the harvest and create something sweet or savory!Strawberries, blueberries and blackberries are perfect ingredients to any recipe right now!

Old Fashioned Foods

 Would our great grandparents eat what we would eat? What would we think of their favorites?Are there any foods that have lasted through the decades and still served today? Yes!

One of the most endearing and tastiest is the simple grahhan cracker. This sweet cracker began in the mid 1800's' by Sylvester Graham, the father of vegetarianism. They were and still are made with graham flour a densely milled whole wheat kind,complete with the hull and the germ. This creates a healthier digestive biscuit.It may have been the first "cookie many American kids ate. Now it's still a sweet snack and was reinvented as the base for s'mores first made in 1927 by the American Girl Scouts. Now home chefs also use it for pie crusts, weather it's for ice cream pie or a cream pie .Crushed graham crackers mixed with butter and sugar are also the base or crust for cheesecake too.is it still a healthy snack. Yes!It's much better than a sleeve of any kind of cookie and perfect for someone on a limited diet.Another sweet snack that  our grandparents loved is tapioca. Every home chef in decades past had her (yes her. It was always women in charge for the family kitchen back in the day ) had her own spin on the recipe. It's made with the exotic cassava root.Ot's been around for millennia  having first been made by indigenous Brazilians.  The pudding itself is made with "pearls" beads filled with the cassava.They;'re cooked with eggs as any custard is.Vanilla is added to bring out the cassava's flavor. Custards are another ls fashioned dessert that's still being eaten today.

Some foods can cause shivers.Pigs knuckles or hocks were a big deal in German family dinners . SOme German clubs like the deutch Club in Clark New Jersey, has it as part of its menu during their summer festivals and Ocktoberfests.They're braised  , depending  on the family oven crisped resulting in a crispy crackly skin.It's served with potato salad or sauerbraten. Brains and livers are other meats that our grandmothers had all sorts of recipes for. These fell out of favor when people preferred just eating different cuts.There are some who still make the classic liver and onions which is calf liver cooked in some kind of oil or fat and then onions are added to it. Some cultures like Moroccan  do still make it as do the Venetians in Italy. It's taken from a much older Roman recipe where the liver is cooked with figs. It serves with white polenta. Are there any brains recipes? Yes, there looks like some tasty ones, mostly fried and heavenly seasoned. Yet just try getting kids and most adults  to eat them . The answer would be a resounding no followed by leaving the table.

Some foods like graham crackers go on. Some like brains and livers don't Tastes change as do the population.

The Asier Dessert Ice Or Ice Cream

Summer demands cool desserts. However there can  be a sweat in creating them.  Which is easier?Is a bowl of frosty flavored ice? Or a cone of creamy , custardy ice cream? Is gelato easier to make than these both? There are differences and easy options any home chef can choose.

First of all what is ice. It can be shaved or pebble or fork sifted as with the Italian granite.Keep in mind you will need some kind of ice machine, whether it's for shaved or snow cone kind of ices.They're both very different thanks to the texture of the ices.Most home chefs opt for the snow cone one. They're great for kids parties and you can create an adult version of snow cone with a shot of some alcohol. Any ice machine does require maintenance . Both types eventually will need replacement blades as well as cups and plastic spoons.They do have kits that come with already made bottles of syrups. The syrups can be made at home.You will need two cups of sugar , one cup water and any unsweetened fruit flavored drink mix.Fresh fruit can be used for purists along with agave or syrup for flavoring.You can try a pound of strawberries, blue berries and or blackberries for a fresh , flavorful, spoonful. A simpler ice is the Italian granite. This is a fun quick dessert.It's two cups of strong brewed coffee or espresso mixed with sugar and then frozen in a tray (usually an ice cube one)It's scrapped every two or three hours to create a gritty texture.Granita is usually served with whipped cream and dusted with cocoa. There's really zero effort in making it and it's the easiest frozen dessert to make..

Is there an easy ice cream recipe? Yes there are a few no cook recipes you can use. Most , however, do use a custard recipe that requires cooking egg yolks and cream.Non-custard versions do require heavy cream for body and smoothness. A classic chocolate  one has a blend of cocoa powder, heavy cream, sugar, whole milk and vanilla.It's beating the cocoa powder and heavy cream first  The vanilla is added in , then the milk and sugar.It's chilled first and then gone through the ice cream maker. Can you make this without an icecream maker. Yes, you can,. You can sort of create your own ice cream maker by using a plastic bag and a bigger plastic bag. Fill the larger ine with four  cups of fresh crushed ice and four tablespoons of coarse salt. The salt lowers the freezing point of the ice and creates an extra cold atmosphere. This squeezes out all the heat and makes for a better ice cream. Fill the smaller bag with the ice cream mixture and then wrap the larger bag in a towel and shake vigorously until frozen. The more you shake the more frozen it will be. You can also buy an ice cream ball from Wal-Mart or Amazon for a quicker freeze.

what is easier to create? Ice, especially granita is the simplest. Yet if you want a quick ice cream then go for a non custard one for a sweet and fast dessert.

Honoring Our Vets

 Eighty-one years ago today the Allied Forces launched one of the biggest invasions for their fight for world freedom. Today we honor them and their jaw dropping heroics on a Normandy beach. 

Here is the question - what do you do to honor veterans? Do you invite an elderly serviceman to dinner? Treat vets just coming home with a gift certificate to a good restaurant? I wish I had an answer here. I just donate which is not or never enough. I write about them sure enough but are my words getting through?

Let us know how you honor the brave men and women that serve our country.

Barbecue Gone Bad

The American dream is to own your own company and profit greatly from it. Franchise from Mc Donald's to subway have offered and even guaranteed it.Yet some franchises promise everything and deliver nothing. This is the story of one - Dickey's in Texas.

regular contributor Brett Anderson wrote about this in yesterday's New York Times wednesday's Food section. dickey's is a staple in southern states where it serves up everything from down home barbecue to chicken wings to fried okra. The original owner ,opened up the first dickey's in 1941 in Dallas. He was Travis Dickey a world war One veteran, helped out by his wife Miss Ollie.Their menu was a simple one, selling brisket, pit hams and bottled milk.The family business grew into a small local chain. after his death in 1967 his sons Roland and TD took over. It wasn't until grandson Roland dickey Junior took over in 2006 that the company expanded. He took advantage of the burgeoning love of all things barbecue and expanded from just twenty locations to 550. It made Dickey's the world's largest barbecue chain and one fo the fastest growing restaurant franchises.Its growth was fueled by teaming up with potential owners who had little to no experience but were attracted to the ridiculously low start up costs that promised big returns.

This is where the trouble beings.franchisees have told The Times that Dickey's sales reps sold failing locations to new owners multiple times without any warning. The tactic r educes the numbers of closings reported in public bankruptcy filings and enables fees to continue flowing to the parent company. The franchise's attract military people, cashing in on the founder's own military service. Roland dickey's Juniors mother ,Maurine,a former Dallas commissioner  also leads the company charity that center saround law enforcement, firefighters and other emergency workers. These bring in new owners ,probably impressed by this. One such owner was former military contractor Tracy Norris who saw Dickey's franchises advertised in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.. he and his wife were interested and it looked like a good deal. Once bought the Norri's had to buy from Dickey approved vendors who were higher in price than their competitors. The Norris'felt like an open checkbook.Their location in Sanger Texas, right outside Roy Roberts Lake closed after eighteen months. They lost everything, including their home. This was the way for most dickey's owners. They invested everything, heart and soul only to have it lost months later.

Is Dickey's a cautionary tale to anyone thinking about a buying a franchise? Yes. Consider the more famous national or international ones. The odds of succeeding with one seems pretty good.

Keeping A British Classic Safe

 Pie and mash is as integral to British dining and life as fish and chips is. Now there's a campaign to make this tasty dish one of the most protected dishes in the UK ,

New contributor, Londoner Demi Perera ,a writer for Lonely Planet wrote about this in today's New York Times Food Wednesday section.Pie and mash is a beloved dish from London's gritty East end. It was a Cockney favorite for years having being created in the mid Nineteenth century for dockworkers who craved a warm meal at lunch time.it also had to be cheap to fit in with their low wages as well. Pie men first appeared here selling ones stuffed with eels from Dutch ships.Minced meat fillings replaced the fish and a side of mashed potatoes was added. The first pie shop was opened by Henry Blanchard in 1844 in the London borough of Southwark, situated on the Thames south bank. This is where all the dockworkers and porters plied their trade. The dish has remained the same 180 years later. There is still handmade minced beef pie with a scrape if mashed potato. As in 1844 there is parsley sauce on top of this, called liquor.It was originally made with water leftover from boiling eels, thickened with flour and then seasoned with salt and pepper. Now there is even a vegan version for vegetarians.

Again this is as dear to the Brits ,especially the Cockneys who have left the city and now all live in nearby Essex (this has become the pie and mash capital of England).Unfortunately thanks to a diverse and vibrant multiculture the dish is on the brink of extinction. Pie shop owners across the country want to give the dish " traditional specialty guaranteed: status.However fifteen producers must decide on a single recipe to support what's known as the TSG application. some, like Cheryl Arment, owner of Arment's Pie and mash were afraid they'd have to divulge family secrets. Her family recipe and store have been around since 1914.She couldn't;t let light in on the magic.Luckily shop owners agreed on a standardized recipe for mincemeat which seemed to satisfy the requirements. It was either that or if the dish's name had been in production for thirty years. This suits the East End piemen just fine.Many feel that the status is long in coming. Another piemen Andy green 's campaign for to even gained traction in Parliament when Conservative Richard Holden secured formal discussion of the issue in Parliament to draw political support.

Pie and mash is as English as fish and chips and Devon cream tea. It has fed millions of Brits for decades. It should be elevated in British history and British life.